Collective leadership, or collectivity of leadership, became - alongside doctrine such as democratic centralism - official dogma for governance in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and other soc
(L-R) Molotov, Voroshilov, Beria, Malenkov, Bulganin, Khrushchev, Kaganovich and Mikoyan, the eight members of the collective leadership, at Stalin´s bier in 1953.
Georgy Malenkov, the Premier of the Soviet Union, emerged as one of the major contenders for the Soviet leadership in 1953, but lost to Khrushchev in 1955.
Lavrentiy Beria
Leonid Brezhnev
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Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. He also held office as Chairman of the Pres
Official portrait, 1972
Brezhnev (right) speaks with Nikita Khrushchev, 23 April 1943
Brezhnev in 1950
Nikita Khrushchev, the leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Brezhnev's main patron